Talking about Olympic events while ramping up for the next major competition in Tokyo!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Rare Week

This is a very interesting week if you're a sports fan. You may wonder why, though. Football is barely a month old, baseball is ending, and basketball and hockey have only begun to have training camp.

Wait a minute...

Sure enough - if you're an NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL fan, all four of your teams are working right now!

The Detroit Pistons website alerted me to this when they announced that practices have officially begun! I already knew that the Red Wings had a preseason game on Sunday, and the Lions have gone winless in 3 regular season games. Currently, I am listening to Game 1 of a doubleheader between the Tigers and the Cleveland Indians.

It's pretty crazy to think about!

I know I could get flak for saying that the Red Wings and Pistons are "in season", when clearly they are still getting their preseasons under way. But I like to think that counts. After all, the players are wearing official uniforms, getting together as a team, and being managed by their coaches. They aren't doing individual workouts or pending quality vacation time in Malibu.

So what do we do about this rare phenomenon?

Enjoy it! Sure, the Tigers aren't going to the playoffs, but they're still playing good baseball! They swept the Twins over the weekend, and Comerica Park sounded like it had playoff atmosphere. Make sure to stay tuned to their last few games, and give them your full support. After all, we can sit there the entire game and analyze how they are going to fare in 2011.

When it comes to the Lions, they're only 0-3. They're going to Green Bay this weekend to face a very upset Packer squad that imploded with penalties on Monday night. Not to mention that the Lions haven't won in Wisconsin since 1991. But maybe the Packers will be so lackluster from a short week of practice that the Lions will take the upper hand.

Well, maybe not. Let's just take bets on when the Lions will let QB Matt Stafford return!

The Pistons have just begun practice, so all wecan take from them is their quotes from Media Day. They have a scrimmage coming up, which may result in a pretty fun dunk contest. Optimism is high, so it's the perfect time to pay attention!

As for the Red Wings, we can anticipate a season with fresh players. We didn't make it all the way to the Final last year, and that may be the best result for this team. You can get pretty tired playing from October through June two years in a row! Hopefully that extra rest will be instrumental in getting them off to a hot start.

This is one of the only times of the year where we can truly enjoy being a four-sport fan (and if you're a Detroit fan, enjoy the fact that we're a four-sport town). The only other time I can see would be April (in the D!), where the NHL playoffs have started, NBA season is winding down, MLB has just begun, and the NFL has its high-profile draft.

But April is still so far away. Enjoy this time now, before it's all over!